'Scots went for the money' says Ireland chief

WORLD CUP 2023 REACTION: The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) has expressed its disappointment that it couldn’t count on Scotland and Wales during the 2023 World Cup bidding process.

Ireland collected just eight of the 39 available votes and were eliminated in the first round in London, before France were given the right to host the 2023 World Cup with a shock defeat of South Africa.

According to the Irish online magazine, the Independent, Ireland received the backing from England but didn't receive any support form any of the Pro14 countries.

Scotland are widely believed to have voted for France, while Wales followed the recommendation of the technical evaluation and go for South Africa. Italy’s vote also went elsewhere.

Scotland, Browne revealed, followed the money, while Wales were duty bound to go with the recommendation because their chairman Gareth Davies is also a member of the World Rugby Council, its executive committee and a director of Rugby World Cup Ltd.

"The bottom line is that we were disappointed that Scotland and Wales didn’t vote for us," Union chief Philip Browne told reporters.

"They had reasons. Scotland wanted to go for the money and Wales wanted to effectively support Gareth Davies [Chairman of the WRU], who was part of the evaluation process.

"To be fair to Scotland, they have said consistently that they wanted to wait for the evaluation report was produced and they consistently said that they'd go with the bid that produced the greatest amount of revenue to RWC.

"In terms of Wales, the situation was that they wanted to see what the evaluation report was like, what the outcome of that was, and they felt duty bound, honour bound to support Gareth Davies who was on the board of RWC and part of the evaluation process,"

Ireland were early favourites to host the tournament, but being ranked third on the World Rugby's review report last month dented their bidding process.

"For almost six years we have focussed passionately on bringing a Rugby World Cup to Ireland in 2023. In that time we developed a world-class proposition which reflected positively on Ireland and saw us formally acknowledged as a destination well capable of hosting a superb Rugby World Cup.

"It is not to be. It belongs to France. They have our warmest congratulations and very best wishes for a magnificent Rugby World Cup in 2023."